Retro Expo took place on
05 and 06 December at the Business Design Centre in London. The event comprised of: The Retrofit Summit
- a one day policy conference on 05 December exploring the refurbishment and
energy efficient retrofit of existing buildings from a national, strategic
perspective. The Retrofit London
Conference – supported by the Mayor of London, this
event on 06 December explored the challenges and opportunities of low
carbon retrofits in the capital. A series of
workshops looking at the technical aspects of retrofits. An exhibition of
retrofit innovation including leading names such as
BASF, EDF, Kingspan, Travis Perkins and SIG360 Retrofit and The Retro Expo
Awards Ceremony - recognising excellence in retrofit products, projects and people across the domestic, commercial and public sector markets.

Harnessing the hatred of energy firms

19th November, 2013

Energy efficiency is not
very cool but neither is giving all your money to the
big six

As the arguments have raged around energy companies, “green”
taxes, the Green Deal and the apparent reluctance of homeowners to upgrade the
energy efficiency of their homes, I have come to the conclusion that there are really
only two problems.

The first is that the NHS with its free services is facing
seemingly unlimited demand but the energy efficiency world is facing the
opposite challenge where free work has low demand. Handing over as little money
as possible for comfort seems quite attractive to me as a basic principle, let
alone the benefits of having a draught free and warm home where you can walk
round without Arctic clothing.

The second is that we persist in selling energy efficiency on a
payback basis. Excuse me but no-one asks the payback period for a new bathroom
or kitchen.

Last time I looked at the kitchen, bathroom and other home
improvement areas, the marketing was on benefits such as comfort, usability,
safety and so on. Financial payback didn’t feature which is not to deny that
reasonable cost isn’t a factor.

Here I generally get the hackneyed response that bathrooms and
kitchens are something you can see, touch and show off to the neighbours
whereas no-one ever says “Come and look at my loft insulation”. But when you
have upgraded a seriously cold, draughty and energy gobbling house to something
cosy and pleasant, your visitors do actually ask what you have done. They might
not want to see all the details anymore than I want to see the workings of an
elderly relative’s hip replacement or bladder operation, however, in both
cases, we are impressed that it works and appreciate the benefits for all
concerned. So why not adopt a new simpler way forward that harnesses people’s
views?

My semi-serious suggestion is that we need a new marketing
campaign.

The first strand is to harness the public’s anger at the energy
companies. First question is “Do you like giving so much of your hard earned
cash to those greedy, monopolistic ***** known as the energy companies?”

The follow-up question is, “Would you be interested in some ways
of avoiding giving so much of your hard earned cash to those greedy,
monopolistic ***** known as the energy companies?”

The next step is to get more locally specific demonstration
homes where people can go and see what a properly upgraded home is really like.
Spend some of the billions in taxes that are hidden in your gas and electricity
bills on a network of homes where low cost upgrades and general home
improvements can be seen. Don’t show only ultra deep renovations, but good,
sensible stuff appropriate to the area that is no regrets work. I know there
are some demonstration networks already but we need more.

As I am not a marketing professional I can’t be sure that my
proposed way forward would work any better than the existing marketing but I
don’t see the existing system getting any better anytime soon.

John Tebbit is deputy chief executive of the Construction
Products Association